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to think you "PTA mummies" will love this and it was definitely written by a MN-etter

247 replies

ChickenVindaloo2 · 31/03/2017 21:09

Facebook post: (disclaimer - I am neither a mother nor a PTA member!). "Eleventy billion" --> written by one of us MN lot!
Here goes...

So, shall we talk about the dreaded ‘PTA Mummies’? God, they’re annoying bitches, aren’t they, with their endless raffle tickets, and coffee mornings, and Race Nights, and Wine and Cheese Nights.

Actually, the ‘Let’s Kick The PTA Mummies’ thing gets right on this Mummy’s tits. They’re easy targets, aren’t they, the PTA Mummies? Bossy, smug, AND they think they’re important just because they are allowed in the staffroom sometimes. Mummy used to think the same about them, until she foolishly (drunkenly) agreed to join the PTA, and then somehow ended up spending two years as the PTA Chair, until her soul was crushed and all faith in humanity sucked out of her. So this is what it’s really like being a PTA Mummy versus the myths about the Tyrant Queen Of The Raffle Tickets:

Yes, the PTA mummies are quite pally with some of the teachers. After Mrs Harrison and the PTA Mummies have had to minister to little Olly Johnson at the school fete because his mummy thinks PTA events basically only exist to provide her with cheap childcare at the weekends, so she dropped him off clutching a fiver and she swanned off to the gym, finally returning half an hour after the fete finished, by which time Olly had spent the lot on the tuckshop and was puking the rainbow, a certain solidarity is born. And yes, the PTA Mummies are a tiny bit smug about being allowed into the staffroom sometimes, which let’s face it, was like a portal to another world when you were at school, so it is quite exciting to be allowed in and it is literally the ONLY perk of being on the PTA, even if it turns out to be a bit shit really and very beige, with uncomfortable chairs and unflattering lighting and a lingering scent of bad coffee and broken dreams.

The PTA Mummies send eleventy billion passive aggressive emails. Yes. Yes, they do. They send eleventy billion emails because they are desperately trying to persuade someone, anyone, to volunteer at the event they are organising to raise funds for the school- funds to pay for school trips, and computers, and equipment, and books, and all the other things the school needs, but can’t afford with their limited budget. School trips, computers, equipment and books that everybody’s children benefit from, not just the PTA Mummies’ children. And the emails ARE quite passive aggressive, it’s true, because it is frowned upon to send emails saying “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WILL SOME OF YOU LAZY FUCKERS STEP UP AND OFFER TO HELP” because they’re good, the PTA Mummies, they have yards of bunting and staple guns and they’re not afraid to use them, and they’re absolute whizzes at transforming a municipal hall into Santa’s Grotto or a cocktail bar using only fairy lights and sellotape, but they cannot run an event for 100 people with only three volunteers, and believe you me, they have heard ALL the excuses about why other parents can’t possibly help, including this Mummy’s personal favourite of “I can’t be expected to spare the time to help with that, I have TWO CHILDREN, you know!” If every parent in every school volunteered to help at one event a year, which probably would actually involve no more than two or three hours of their time A YEAR, then the PTA Mummies would probably send a lot fewer emails, and the emails they did send would be much happier.

Oh, and they’re a bit bloody perfect too, aren’t they, the PTA Mummies? Rocking up at the school barbecue with their vats of homemade houmous, or boxes and boxes of cakes at the coffee mornings? Really, who are they trying to show off to? Or, maybe it’s because all the vegetarians moaned at last year’s barbecue about being fobbed off with boring veggie burgers again, and so the PTA Mummies tried to come up with a more interesting alternative, but houmous is expensive and every event is run on a shoestring, and so they found a cheap recipe to make your own houmous, but they did it last night when they were pissed and now their whole kitchen is sprayed with houmous and they are hungover to fuck and will be chipping houmous off the ceiling for months because actually, they’re only human, and as they smile brightly at you, all they can think of is a medicinal pork pie.

And remember why they’re trying to flog the raffle tickets and pushing the coffee mornings and asking for tombola prizes- it’s for your kids. Remember as well that most people these days work at least part time, if not full time, and these dreadful PTA Mummies are trying to fit the fundraising for the school in around their real jobs and families. Their own children wander abandoned round the PTA events- their mums never see them win the Hook-A-Duck or the Beat the Goalie, because their mums are in the kitchen washing up 200 tea cups, and lying to the treasurer that absolutely they have done a risk assessment, and answering everybody’s questions about what needs done next and what goes where and who’s doing what, and thinking that if they ever, EVER see another fucking raffle ticket again in their life, they will go stark staring mad!

So, PTA Mummies- you are absolute fucking superstars. You help keep the schools running and provide a better education for everyone’s kids. So buy their raffle tickets, and give them a nod of recognition for all they do, along with all the other people who volunteer in schools in other ways. You are all awesome, and fuck anyone who says otherwise. You. Are. Legends. Xxxx

OP posts:
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bibbitybobbityyhat · 31/03/2017 21:11

Gosh, did you really bother to read all that?

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AssassinatedBeauty · 31/03/2017 21:14

How do people care enough about this sort of thing to write such rants?

(Also, are there no dads on PTAs?)

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AmysTiara · 31/03/2017 21:17

God i hate stuff like this. I can't read it without squirming in embarrassment for them.

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Saucery · 31/03/2017 21:18

It was great, wasn't it? Love her on a roll. She's even better on serious subjects.

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PuntCuffin · 31/03/2017 21:27

Fucking Peter and Jane. Making amusing wee anecdotes painfully long and boring to read.

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Saucery · 31/03/2017 21:30

It's weird how MN flattens it out and makes it TL:DR.
I don't know why, but I'm always surprised she lives in Scotland.

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iMatter · 31/03/2017 21:33

Ugh. Written in the same awful (patronising/infantilising) style as that dreadful Hurrah For Gin book.

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AgathaMystery · 31/03/2017 21:35

That's ace!

I wish I'd written it. It is exactly my DC school. Especially me: staple gun + fairy lights = cocktail bar

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wowzerz · 31/03/2017 21:39

I have no idea how are you have the time in your day to write something this long but I certainly don't have the time to read it. Have a good one!

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TitaniasCloset · 31/03/2017 21:39

I love it! Great wee rant.

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Eminado · 31/03/2017 21:41

The first 3 replies to this post 🙈

🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️

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ThreeLeggedHaggis · 31/03/2017 21:41

I made it to the third paragraph. Any advances?

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QueenofallIsee · 31/03/2017 21:43

i would never ever use the expression 'PTA Mummies'. I mean, who would?

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Rossigigi · 31/03/2017 21:45

That's a few minutes of my life I won't get back,...

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CorporeSarnie · 31/03/2017 21:57

Good God. Still at least it keeps her amused, even if it really is tl:dr.

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Hoppinggreen · 31/03/2017 22:00

I have recently been involved in starting a PTA and a parent posted that on one of the ( unofficial) FB pages
Love it

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mrsBeverleygoldberg · 31/03/2017 22:01

I love Peter and Jane. She makes me laugh.

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QuackDuckQuack · 31/03/2017 22:03

I support our PTA when I can, but surely there are a fair few parents like me who look at all of the requests for help and just wish they could give the PTA £20 and keep the time for MN and gin. Even more so when asked to bake cakes that are then sold for less than the cost of ingredients.

Although I've now discovered the best solution to helping with PTA stuff - I just tell DH I've signed him up and where he has to turn up.

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peaceloveandbiscuits · 31/03/2017 22:03

It was TLDR for me, but as a "local NCT mummy" (read: fucking mug who can't say no), the gist resonated with me. One more week, one more event, and I'm free, because I'm "stepping down" to have a second baby, which means I'll do just as much shit as before, but I'll have a baby attached to me as well. Why can't I ever say no?

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ArcheryAnnie · 31/03/2017 22:04

Whatever you think of her writing style, she had a point, though. It's bloody hard work raising money for a school when hardly anyone is interested, and when the school REALLY needs the money.

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PerpendicularVincent · 31/03/2017 22:05

Who on earth wrote that? Actually took the time to think up such drivel. Sorry

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alltouchedout · 31/03/2017 22:05

Meh.

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ALittleMop · 31/03/2017 22:06

Christ

This kind of thing makes me less sympathetic to the PTA cause, frankly.

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Longdistance · 31/03/2017 22:07

I fucking hate the term 'mummies'. I've had messages from my dd's friends parents doing a joint message 'right mummies..'

FUCK OFF!!!

Funnily, I've never met up with them on these play dates.

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SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 31/03/2017 22:09

Peter & Jane.

Call it "twee" all you like - it pretty much sums up my 8 years as a PTA member!

I only went to the one meeting "to meet people". The rest, as they say, is history.

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